Mobile communications devices such as smart phones, PDAs and the like have become ubiquitous throughout modern society. In addition to often providing wireless communications connectivity such as via phone service and text messaging, these devices are generally configured as small computers including operating systems that can support an increasingly broad range of sophisticated computing applications and other software-related functionalities. The input-output interface between the device and a user can include a touch screen display and/or physical keypad. Many of these devices are often operatively equipped with a digital camera that can capture visual images that can be stored on the device or manipulated by the computer applications. The exterior design of these communications devices tends to be sleek and compact to facilitate the mobility aspect of the communications devices. The camera lens is typically disposed on the exterior of the communications device at a location where it will generally not interfere with the handling of the device. In addition to capturing visual images as digital photographs, the camera can in some instances be used as a reader or scanner to obtain information about an object that has been scanned, such as, for example, a barcode label. The present disclosure is directed to enabling similar functionality in a mobile communications device.